Blink and You Miss It

I don't think I ever really thought about how much Baby A was going to change in a year. Or how quickly those changes would happen. When you first hold that tiny baby in your arms you know they are going to grow up but you really have no idea. On those long, long, LONG nights when they are crying for hours and there is seemingly no end in sight you never think things will be different. You think they will forever be this little, needy, helpless, lump. And next thing you know, they aren't.

I have 10 nieces and nephews and there is so much stuff that I never noticed. I wonder what I was doing. I never realized that babies go through developmental plateaus. They do the same things for what seems like a long time and then they will go through this learning/changing spurt when they start doing tons of new stuff. Baby A is going through a major one of these right now. It feels like she is morphing from a baby to a little girl right before my eyes.

There is the walking. Day by day she is taking more steps at once and taking them more confidently. The talking. Almost every day she'll mimic another word that someone says. It shocks me every time. Her hair is getting so much longer and thicker. I bought some tiny barrets for her today. I couldn't help myself. She is nursing less often. It's really only three to four times a day now. I'm still pumping in the morning but when I see how little milk there actually is I know the nursing is coming to an end. There is the way she plays with her toys. She really concentrates on what she's doing whether it is pressing buttons, playing with blocks or flipping through books. I can just see her little mind working away as she chatters to herself. I wish I knew what she was talking about.

Something that she has really started to enjoy lately is brushing her teeth with me. Whenever she sees me doing it she gets all excited and I know I have to get her toothbrush out as well. “Let's brush your tooth.” I'll say. She sits on the floor and watches me as I brush my teeth and she tries to move her toothbrush the same way. When it's time to put it away she always crys and gets really mad at me. I think she'd suck on that thing all day if I let her.






Anyway, I'm wondering when we'll hit the next plateau. It is hard to keep up with all this new exciting stuff she is doing. I am so behind with her baby book. First steps... Um... in August... sometime. Such a good Mama.